1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a computer chess game, and more particularly, to a robot computer chess game capable of simulating humanoid characteristics while playing an expert level of chess.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The desire to automate the playing of chess games, particularly with a humanoid configuration, has existed for a considerable period of time. Purportedly in the year 1769, a Hungarian, Baron Von Kempelen, built an alleged automatic chess player which was subsequently exhibited throughout Europe and the United States until it was destroyed in a fire in Philadelphia in 1854. The automated player was a lifesize figure that was seated on top of a box before a chess board. A pincer-like arrangement in the figure's hand could grasp and release the chess pieces to make moves. In actuality, a hidden operator purportedly manipulated the pieces. It has been alleged that the hidden player was positioned beneath the chess board and that each one of the 64 chess squares had a suspended tiny metallic ball held by silk thread hanging down beneath the board. Each of the chessmen with which the automaton played above had a magnet inside. The movement of any one of the chessmen onto a square attracted the little ball until it attached to its corresponding square below. The hidden operator would then accordingly adjust chess pieces on a small chess board to keep track of the individual moves and to monitor the movement of the pincer arm.
More recently, there has been proposed a chess playing cartesian coordinate robotistic arm and hand with stepping motors that has been commercially advertised as the Boris Handroid. An article in ROBOTICS AGE, Vol. 1, No. 1, Summer 1979, pages 36-44, "The Grivet Chess Playing Arm" further describes a robot manipulator with the D.C. motors controlled by optical sensors that provide a workspace sufficient to extend across a chess board.
With the advent of the computer, and more recently, the availability of economical microprocessor circuits and memories, automatic chess games with various visual and graphic displays have been made commercially available. Generally, these chess computer games have been provided with a playing board, a limited display, and a keyboard. Frequently, the playing board incorporates female receptacles for receiving individual chess pieces and for verifying the position of a particular chess piece with the microprocessor's circuitry. LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are generally positioned in each square of the chess board to provide visual coordinate positions for indicating the computer's move and also, to indicate the responding move by the human. The electronic displays generally provide an alphabetic and numerical readout indicating a particular piece and coordinate as is well known in the field of chess. Alternative playing boards have also been suggested that use an opaque resilient chess board, having a relatively planar surface with appropriate indicia to indicate a board configuration. The chess pieces are positioned on the board in a conventional manner and again, LEDs are provided in each square. By pressing the surface of the resilient chess board, the player closes a switch and activates a light on the square. The player moves the chess pieces, not only for his move, but to comply with the activated lights that disclose the counter moves by the chess computer.
Various accessory chess component parts have also been recently suggested, such as a synthesizing voice that is capable of informing you of each move, capture, and also capable of repeating the position of a chess piece on demand, an electronic printer for keeping record of the game, and a chess clock.
After all these years, the prior art is still seeking to provide a humanistic automaton chess playing component that is capable of creating a physiological and psychological impact of playing a machine with human characteristics that nevertheless has been honed to the perfection and repeatability only possible through the use of robotics.